February 21, 2018

The LA Times reports that the number of homeless has increased 4% since 2016 in the Bay and Harbor areas.

Those with homes in those locations fear the homeless camps may be permanent. A sign of that is that mobile public hygiene facilities have been installed.

Others around the U.S., especially financially struggling Millennials where housing costs are high, fear they could wind up on the street.

But, aside from social workers and researchers, few understand the stories of those who are homeless. Even in this era of narratives, they're the stories which usually don't get told, at least not with insight and respect.

In 2007, there was an exception.

In the UK, highly educated Alexander Masters got to know Stuart Shorter, a man who considered the streets home and fellow homeless people his trusted companions.

When placed in a bedsitter by a social service agency, Stuart always found ways to blow that up and return to the streets. In a sense, he was an anti-hero, putting together a life on his own terms.

Masters had the open-mindedness to allow Shorter to tell his story, directly and indirectly.

That became the best-selling book "Stuart - A Life Backwards," a theatrical production, and a film starring famous actor Benedict Cumberbach. Here the book can be ordered from Amazon.

Shorter, as is typical in homelessness, got off to a rocky start. He was disabled, then suffered a trauma at age 13. He coped through alcohol, violence, and suicide attempts. But, he always took charge. His journey was not one of drift.

His death by a train seemed staged as an accident. That could have been to spare his mother the burden of knowing her son died a suicide.

Shorter isn't unique. There are myriad compelling stories among the homeless.

When I was traveling in England, I accidentally wound up in a London shelter for homeless women. The travel guide had misrepresented it.

Among the residents were those with a clear sense of self. They were the ones structuring how they lived on a daily basis. An unhappy doctoral student at the time, I envied their having direction. Eventually, I left academia and found writing as a career path.

Few of those stories get told. But, as with the LA Times article, that could change.

As we get to know more of the homeless as human beings making choices, not just giving up, the legal systems around the world will have to deal with this phenomenon. There will be new laws and regulations about where and how human beings can manage a life without conventional housing.

"Twitter, which is constantly criticized for not doing enough to prevent harassment, has updated its guidelines with more information on how it handles tweets or accounts that encourage other people to hurt themselves or commit suicide." - Catherine Shu, TechCrunch, February 21, 2018. Here is the article.

In its Help Center, Twitter added a new section titled "Glorifying self-harm and suicide." Click on it here.

Essentially, Twitter's approach is now two-fold:

Connecting with those considering self-harm or suicide

Prohibiting tweets which encourage self-harm or suicide.

Everyone using Twitter is instructed to report tweets violating this policy. Those doing the violating will have their accounts locked for a period of time. Also the tweets will be removed. If there is a second offense, the account will be shut down permanently.

The conservative Drudge Report's signature is headlining with political developments. If they were big, there would be a flashing blue light.

That was kicked off in 1998. The media outlet's founder Matt Drudge broke the intern story - that is, Monicagate.

Over the years, the formula hasn't changed much. The flashing blue light is gone. The site contains more negative news about conservative politicos. And now and then there is a business headline.

That now and then happened today. The featured story is all about Walmart woes. Here is the link.

Essentially Walmart is stumbling in e-commerce. During Q4, online sales only grew 23% versus 50% in Q3. Right now, according to 2017 numbers, ecommerce represents only 4% of the company's total revenue. Ecommerce is, of course, the retailer's future.

Wall Street didn't like what it heard. Yesterday, the stock plunged 10.2%.

One bright spot is that more customers are using self-check out.

When self-service becomes the primary check-out mode, Walmart can reduce costs. The clerks I have interviewed informally all anticipate their jobs will be eliminated within 2 years.

They hope to be able to transfer into Walmart's ecommerce. When retailers have a successful online option, such as Home Depot, that requires a stand-alone customer service unit. I had consulted for a company to which Home Depot outsourced that function.

Probably later today the Drudge Report will shift back to headlining again with Donald Trump, Robert Mueller or the Russians.

However, our age is plastered all over media outlets and everywhere on the internet. Any employer or potential client can encounter our age in reading an article about us in the media. Or, if they are doing a google search, it's there there and there.

In our society age, just like some medical conditions, is a negative. Sure, Rupert Murdoch and Warren Buffett get free passes on the age issue. But the rest of us find we will hit up against the bias.

I have been able to bypass some of that discrimination by reconfiguring my business as a telecommuting one. However, I miss out on the opportunities which I used to have access to when I pitched a prospect in-person and got the business.

It's time our elected officials started thinking seriously about the need for privacy about our age. More and more of us have to work. And that more and more will keep growing since inflation is back.

The reality, though, is that prejudice against the aging is the one kind of bias that is still allowed to continue. Here is an amazing article about that.

That is the headline in Bloomberg this evening. The person not cooperating is Alex van der Zwaan. He is a lawyer who had been a former associate at Skadden. Here you can go on to read the article.

That Skadden fired him seems irrelevant to members of the media. They are getting too much mileage highlighting that this miscreant had once labored in the vineyards of that prestigious law firm. The story even made ABC News with David Muir.

The sentencing is scheduled for April 3rd. So, there is still plenty of time to milk this association with Skadden.

Also, in the memory bank is the sad tale of Skadden partner - Edmund Duffy - who recently lost his license because of child porn.

Clearly, this is a reputational crisis. Skadden may or may not embrace that reality. A tarnishing of the brand can drive away prospects and current clients who are already jittery in these unusual times.

To manage this crisis Skadden should think and act out of the traditional public affairs sandbox.

Here are recommendations:

All lawyers beef up pro-bono hours. More than the usual. And share on social media what they are learning from those they are supposedly helping. Last night's episode on "The Good Doctor" pounded the meme of learning. Everyone from the head of the hospital to the parents of an autistic patient made progress on the learning curve.

Pull down the drawbridge and remove the alligators from the moat. That is, be accessible and nice. Once that persona is gotten right, book on all the talk shows, be it "Meet the Press" to "Megyn Kelly Today."

Have associates develop a daily comic strip about a misunderstood law firm. Post that on the website. Let the associates have a byline.

Pull in favors to deliver a TED talk on the right of every human being and organization to a defense.

Start the Skadden Foundation to help lawyers manage their demons. Maybe the Duffys of the world can be prevented from imploding.

Skadden can emerge from this challenging time stronger - in the brand and in the business. There are a book and a documentary in that.

Variety reports that the ratings for the 2018 Winter Olympics, both on network television and through streaming, have been low.

That was predictable.

Globally, we are up on all the ways to cheat in the Olympics. We know the symbol for the Olympics is also one for institutional corruption.

Also, come on, after so much suffering during the 21st century, we have become cynical about the high price athletes pay to chase the gold, as well as the silver and bronze. Hey, all that doesn't seem worth it.

In addition, the tragic saga of Larry Nassar left a bad taste in our mouths about Olympic dreams.

And, of course, the outing of Lance Armstrong's cheating and bullying made some of us swear off all sports.

For the next Winter Olympics I have a hunch there will be little interest among television networks. Or, we the viewing audience.

Here in Ohio, where opioid overdoses have become epidemic, the attorney general sued pharma companies for causing a public nuisance. Here is that complaint. Currently, it's being settled.

But, as I sit in the "rooms" - that is, basement meetings of those in recovery - I wonder if the attorney general targeted the wrong miscreants.

It could just be that Mickey Mouse, et al. put in play all our current woes. Including the myriad forms of substance abuse. My immigrant family came of age before the Disney ethos. They knew life was hard. Often joyless. Two of my uncles died as toddlers. Every Sunday the extended family piled into the boxy Buick and prayed at their gravestone.

My generation came of age with television. Every afternoon we were pulled into the "Mickey Mouse" programming. We went to the movies, paid a quarter, and watched Disney movies. Soon enough there was a weekly television Disney evening show.

So many of us opted for that world view. Actually, as the post-war generation, we were sheltered against reality. Until after college. That's when the unraveling began. My close friends had nervous breakdowns, one trying suicide. I drank.

In the "rooms," it's all that same narrative. Life wasn't supposed to be this way. Currently, every week we attend funerals of those who never could shake the Disney mindset.

Of course, the attorneys general in states with opioid epidemics aren't going to declare Mickey Mouse et al. a public nuisance. And sue.

But they might consider motivating Disney to do story-telling about people who struggle, without happy endings. My life remains difficult.

The current challenge has been to differentiate those brands from the competition. Here is the Bloomberg study on that.

That was then.

Now, with wide-ranging investigations of misconduct of all sorts, those brands frequently are pulled in. They can be tarnished if a present or former employee becomes charged with a crime. Or, as with Boies, if a client is alleged to have committed crimes heinous crimes. Also, given the work lawyers do, they can bump up against really bad guys.

So, long story short, BigLaw has to vet its possible hires and the assignments it accepts more thoroughly.

It is not uncommon for the legal sector to risk high-profile legal trouble as a tradeoff for the nfluence and any ability to bring in new business.

The latest threat to the Skadden brand has been put in play by Robert Mueller. That, of course, makes global news. Previously Skadden has been pulled into the probe of Paul Manafort. Here are the details on that from Law and More.

"Special counsel Robert Mueller has charged Alex van der Zwaan, a former Skadden ... associate and son-in-law of the Russian oligarch German Khan, of lying to investigator, according to a court filing."

Here is a copy of that document. He is expected to plead guilty in federal court today.

A Skadden spokesperson told the media that Van der Zwaan was terminated in 2017 and the law firm has been cooperative with authorities.

Most small law firms and solo lawyers have a local business. So do the bakery which specializes in Italian cookies and the hair salon which makes house calls to the elderly and disabled.

Yet, their websites frequently aren't set up for that.

Both the text and the tech aren't configured to attract clients in that state.

In Forbes, Julie Howell hammers the importance of this local aspect for law firms.

One of her key recommendations is for lawyers to consult with search engine experts to have the website programmed for local search. That is a specialization. And it's increasingly important.

What I have noticed is that the most successful small firms and solos explain that they understand the local legal infrastructure. For a custody hearing, for example, prospects want a lawyer who has presented cases in family court with X judge, to whom their case has been assigned.

But, even the website which passes with flying colors all the must-haves in web design and text might not come to the attention of prospects. That because, as research and experience prove out: Google is your homepage.Here are the details on that ecommerce reality.

Here's a classic example. Residents of eastern Ohio get nailed in a DUI. They need a lawyer. But, since this is a new experience for them, they don't know what DUI lawyer to contact.

Because they are ashamed, they tend not to ask around their network for the names of DUI lawyers.

The odds are they will click on the top listings in Google. Law firm rose to the top not so much on the basis of their websites, although search engines do pull material from websites. Essentially, the high rankings come as a result of user-generated content. The media, pleased clients, influencers and reviewers all are in that loop. Yes, the reality in ecommerce is: Google is your homepage.

The takeaways are:

Configure the text and tech for local. An expert in local search may be needed.

Make explicit local experience

Reach out to media, happy clients, and influencers to discuss your unique edge on the internet.